Just one week until we fly out. Lots of details and loose ends to tie up: Confirm reservations, pack, make sure we aren’t violating TSA rules, practice a few essential French phrases (Nous sommes canadiens, Donnez-moi du vin tout de suite, Ou sont les toilettes?). We are beset by First World Problems and we know it. We are so grateful that we can take this trip; we are lucky to be able to do so. Still we are (okay, I am) anxious. But the anxiety will melt away once we are on our way. It will be a great adventure…

Our flight home was great.  They feed us lots of food and drink.  Although the monitors to watch movies was not working …. it was a long but enjoyable flight.

It was great to see Mt Hood as we came in right on time.  Dennis came and picked us up and we were back home before we knew it.  Bunny and i were asleep by 6 pm and ben and scott were out by 8 pm.  We were all up by 6 this morning … which was really wierd.  But we are all still tired an d recovering and slowly slipping back into life before europe
Marty …

We are waiting for our flight to board. We are all exhausted but happy. Both boys say it has been a great trip. Ben added that he will tell his friends that he had a wonderful vacation despite the fact that his parents are crazy. (That’s always our goal!)
The following commentary is brought to you by scott: At the Amsterdam airport I consumed the worst sandwhich ever created. Since the beginning of time bad cooks have made bad sandwhiches, but never has such a sanwhich come into existance. On my return home I am going to set up a memorial to my appetite for I will never view sandwhiches the same again knowing how bad this sandwhich was. Its very creation twisted the fabric of the universe. The laws of physics had to be changed in order for a sandwhich of such poor magnitude to exist.

We got into Amsterdam at 9:30 last night.  We got settled in and Ben and Scott were hungry.  We took the car at 10 pm and went looking for food.  The only thing open was Burger King.  We found it and it was packed so we ate at the equivalent of dairy queen.
Driving ib Amsterdam is the worst we have faced yet.  There are more bikes on the road than cars and the bikes thonk they own the road.  So i had to learn the rules of the road and avoid bikes.
We ate and drove around a little.
The next morning.. tuesday july 10 .. i got the car back to the rental agency … without a scratch on it .. amazingly. Got back to the hotel and we went to breakfast andthenstarted to walk towards the Anne Frank museum. We got there and the line was 2 blocks long. We decidedto wait. It was an hour and a half to get inbut it was worth it.

We then went to dinner and we are ready to get up early and catch the flight home. The great eutopean vacation of 2012 is over. It was a great trip but we are all ready to be home.

We have arrived in Amsterdam.  The 6 hour drive today was exhausting.  But we got it done.  We started the day in Rothenberg Germany.  What a beaitiful city.  We had a brief breakfast and checked out and went too see the midevil torture museum.  Which featute all the different contraptions they used to torture people way back then.  That was very interesting … but what we foind more interesting was why the people were tortured.  For example the had whats called the bakers chair.  If the baker made the loaves of bread either too large or too small then they strapped him too the chair and dunk him in the moat a few times.  This was so that you knew what you were getting when you bot a loaf of bread.  I am thinking they should begin to use this technique as a remedie to people ripping other people off on Ebay.  So if you get ripped off on Ebay they send out a representative to the sellers house with a chair and a firehose.
Anyway bunny and scotts got caught up in the museum.

We finally let them out.  We walked the wall surrounding the town and got a nice sit down lunch and hit the road at 3:30 pm.
We got into Amsterdam at 9:30.
All of us exhausted from the drive.

We left the apartmemt in Venice right at 9 am.  I was surprised how fast we got ready.  We closed the door on that GREAT apartment and made oir way back to the rental car.  It took us an hour before we were on the road to Rothenbrrg Getmany which is our 2 nd to last stop on our great european vacation.  We drove thru northern Italy and Austria and we think we wete in Lichtenstein for a moment which is probably from one end to the other.  Those are some of the most beautiful countryside we have seen yet.  Beautiful quaint little villages dot the countryside all have and old church and some have a castle overlooking the town below.  I wish we could have had more time to explore .. but we had to be in Rothenberg which we determined was about a 9 hour drive from Venice.   We were hoping to get a glimpse of Mad King Ludwigs castle on the way thru Germany but our navagation system in the rental car told us to avoid that area because of traffic delays.  Since it was Sunday afternoon we figured everyone was making a dayy trip to the castle.  We got into Germany a ways and our nav system took us off the freeway for awhile and we got to drive thru some small towns in Germany.  The towns and countryside look alot like Oregon.  We got onto a freeway and ee noticed that some of the cars were going Awfully fast.  We were on the autobon.  I hsd heard about it but I guess i really didnt think it actually existed. WOW.  I just got in the slow lane and we sat there doind 120 to 140 kmh.  We think that equates to 70 to 90 mph.  Well ee had fun sitting in thr slow lane and watching these cars go ny us like we were standing still.  They must have been going 120 moh and up.  They were mostly Audis and BMWs.  But not all were nice sports cars.  Tge car which went by the fsstest was a Mazda … I couldnt see which model it was but he was going fast. 
We finally pulled into Rothenberg at 6:30.  What a beautiful little town.  This town was built in the 1100’s.  We are really looking fotward to exploring sone more tomorroe.  We had just enough time to get settled into our place and go take a tour of the town with the ‘midnight watchman’. 

He walked a group of about 100 people around town giving us a history lesdon of the town.  At 7 euros a piece i think he does OK for a nights work.  It was a great tour a we learned ALOT of history about Rothenberg. 
After the tour bunny scott and I hit the local italian resturant for pizza and refreshments.  Ben was not feeling well so we brought back pizza for him.  Later Scott and I walk part of the all surronding the city … it is really cool.  But it was dark so we are hopong to walk the rest of the wall in the light. 

Its 8 am Sunday July 8th.  I am ready to get going.  Bunnys in the shower and Ben just wandered into the kitchen looking for coffee and tylenol.  Scotts still in bed. 
Last night bunny and i went lookong for real italian pizza and soveigners.  When we got home ben and Scott had finished a bottle of lambruska and were not home.  They showed up later with ice cream in one hand and hieneken in the other.
I am really glad we made the effort to get to see Venice.

We took the water taxis from the train station near on apartment over to the otherside of the island .. st marco square. 
I think we are all tired.  Still having fun.  We havent voted anyone off the island yet.  But we are tired or at least I am.  I am planning to go back out this evening.  Currently its 2 pm and it is probably 85 degrees out.  It is not as humid as it has been the last 2 days here. 
We found a great resturant for lunch.  Ham sandwiches and Fosters beer on tap.  A good italian lunch.  Mostly the resturant was airconditioned
  Lots  of people here.  But not too crowded.
Long drives over the next 2 days.  9 hour frive tomorrow and 6 hours on Monday.  It will be nice to be off our feet for a couple of days.